Drive to reopen US schools continues despite mounting evidence of deadly consequences

Evan Blake

The drive to reopen the schools continues across the US despite mounting evidence of the disastrous public health implications of doing so even as the coronavirus pandemic rages out of control.

New cases of COVID-19 and deaths from the disease continue to rise and no plan is in place to contain the spread of the virus. Under these conditions, it is impossible to reopen schools safely even with the most advanced measures to protect teachers and students, let alone the half-measures underfunded school districts are implementing.

Opposition to the reopening of the schools is growing in every part of the country, with social media exploding over the past month since President Trump tweeted that “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!” There are now over 55 Facebook groups in at least 30 states, with a combined membership of over 300,000 educators, parents and students. These social media groups have served as centers for the organization of car caravans and other forms of protest.

A school bus in Omaha, Nebraska, July 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

At least four schools in Indiana and Mississippi that resumed in-person instruction over the past week have already had a student test positive for COVID-19. Within hours of the start of the first school day at Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana, officials were notified that a student had tested positive, prompting them to isolate the student and order all those with whom the student had come into contact to self-quarantine.

There is an expanding body of scientific research showing the centrality of keeping schools closed as part of any plan to contain the pandemic. Last week, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA) concluded that the widespread closure of schools in mid-March saved at least 40,600 lives over a 16-day period and resulted in an estimated 1.37 million fewer infections over a 26-day period in the spring. Those states that closed earliest saw the largest relative reductions in infections and deaths.

Another JAMA study released last week found that babies and young children infected with COVID-19 can carry high viral loads in their throats and airways—up to 100 times the amount of adults. The study noted, “Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased.”

These findings were corroborated in a separate study from Trento, Italy, which found that children 14 years old and younger transmit the virus at over twice the rate of adults aged 30–49.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin recently released estimates on the number of children or staff likely to enter US schools already infected, based on current infection rates. Their research found that more than 80 percent of Americans live in a county where at least one person in a school of 500 students and staff would likely arrive infected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report on a major outbreak at a YMCA overnight summer camp in Georgia in late June, where 260 campers and staff members tested positive for COVID-19, or over 75 percent of those tested. Notably, the camp required all attendees to provide documentation that they had tested negative for the virus before arriving.

The demand that schools reopen is central to the ruling class campaign to force workers back to work in order to pump out profits for the corporate-financial elite. While the Trump administration has spearheaded this campaign, flouting medical science, the Democrats bear equal responsibility for prematurely reopening businesses and demanding the reopening of schools in states they control, such as Rhode Island, Hawaii and Colorado.

Plans to reopen schools are left at the local level, with each of the country’s over 13,000 school districts choosing independently and without statewide or regional coordination whether to fully resume in-person instruction, remain fully online, or adopt a hybrid model where students attend in person part of the week.

Of the 15 largest school districts in the US, 10 have announced that they will at least begin their school years fully online, largely as a result of pressure from parents and educators resisting plans to resume in-person instruction.

In Orange County, Florida, the ninth-largest school district in the US, with over 212,000 students, parents must choose either fully in-person or fully online instruction. For working class parents, many of whom have just seen their federal unemployment benefits eliminated, this “choice” amounts to economic blackmail. They are being compelled to return to work and send their children to school, regardless of their justified concern over the potential for both themselves and their children becoming infected.

According to a University of Texas at Austin study, a school of 1,000 students in Orange County can expect to have 14 students or staff arrive at school infected.

The largest and third-largest districts in the country—New York City and Chicago, both of which are run by the Democratic Party—have announced that they plan to partially reopen schools under the hybrid model. This will affect a combined 1.5 million students and nearly 100,000 teachers.

Given the overcrowded and dilapidated classrooms that exist in these districts, such plans spell disaster for the working class in both cities. Similar plans are proposed by the Hawaii Department of Education, the 13th largest school district, where classes are scheduled to resume on August 17 for over 185,000 students.

The Socialist Equality Party and the WSWS Educators Newsletter have issued the call for educators, parents and students to form independent rank-and-file safety committees to unite across district and state lines and prepare for a nationwide strike to halt the drive to reopen the schools.

We propose that these committees fight for a vast expansion in public education funding, as states face combined budget shortfalls of at least $300 billion. They must establish deep connections with all sections of the working class, including autoworkers, who are forming their own rank-and-file safety committees across the Midwest.

This network of rank-and-file committees must be completely independent of the unions and both the Republican and Democratic parties. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) are subservient to the Democratic Party and have ruled out mobilizing their millions of members in a nationwide strike to oppose the reopening of the schools. Instead, they will work to isolate any struggles that break out, as they have with every teachers’ strike since 2018.

The ruling elites internationally, from Brazil to Germany, the UK and Australia, are demanding that the schools reopen under unsafe conditions because they are all seeking to force workers back onto the job in order to drive up corporate profits and make workers pay for the trillions being squandered to bail out the banks.

The response of educators, parents and students must therefore be international, fighting to link their struggles across borders in a global counteroffensive against the capitalist system.

The establishment of a network of independent rank-and-file committees in schools and neighborhoods will become a powerful means through which the working class can prosecute its struggle in defense of public health, public education, democratic rights and the social needs of the people in opposition to the limitless greed of the financial oligarchy. 

NAEd Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Programme 2021

Application Deadline: 8th October 2020

About the Award: The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $27,500 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, analysis, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program is open to all eligible applicants regardless of race, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

• Applicants need not be citizens of the United States; however, they must be candidates for the doctoral degree at a graduate school within the United States.
• Fellowships are not intended to finance data collection or the completion of doctoral coursework, but rather to support the final analysis of the research topic and the writing of the dissertation. For this reason, all applicants must document that they will have completed all pre-dissertation requirements by June 1, 2021 and must provide a clear and specific plan for completing the dissertation within a one or two-year time frame.
• Applicants should have a demonstrated record of research experience in education.
• Proposed project must be an education research project. NAEd/Spencer funds studies that examine the efficacy of curriculum and teaching methods; however, we do not fund the initial development of curriculum or instructional programs.
• Applications will be judged on the applicant’s past research record, career trajectory in education research, and the quality of the project described in the application.
• Fellows may not accept employment other than as described in the application, nor may they accept other awards without prior approval (including awards from NAEd or Spencer) that would provide duplicate benefits.
• Applications must be made by the individual applying for the fellowship; group applications will not be accepted.

Selection Criteria:

• Importance of the research question to education
• Quality of the research approach and feasibility of the work plan
• Applicant’s future potential as a researcher and interest in educational research

Eligible Countries: Any

To be Taken at (Country): USA

Number of Awards: 35

Value of Award:

• 2 Professional Development Retreats Led by Senior Scholars
• $27,500 Fellowship Stipend

Duration of Award: 1 academic year

How to Apply: Click here to access the application portal.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Regimes Without Reason and Conscience

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The world is silently witnessing the erosion of democratic, progressive, secular and liberal cultures of governance. The contemporary governments are becoming more authoritarian and threaten the multicultural mosaic of societies around the world. The governing and non-governing elites falsely argue that democracy breeds inefficiency and creates functional barrier to the animal spirit of profit making and entrepreneurial activities. The majority of people are conspicuously silent. The pandemic has taken away the limited space for resistance to the on-going authoritarian ordeals. From Washington and Westminster to Beijing, Brussels, and New Delhi, the authoritarian cultures define the operational character of the governments. These Machiavellian authoritarian regimes are not only against freedom and democracy but also spread bigotry. The silent coup of reactionary forces is accelerated by rewriting of history, imposition of neoliberal economic policies, removal of all institutional and legal barriers to the lynch mob of market forces.  The governments are not bystanders but active facilitators of authoritarian regimes as a dominant reality in society, politics and economy.

There is a commonality of authoritarian regimes across the globe. These regimes follow a common conservative cult called ‘nation first’.  This ‘nation first’ reactionary political and economic dogma derives its philosophical lineages from social and religious conservative thoughts, that in essence argues to protect, promote and glorify moral traditions of the past. The conservatives and authoritarian ideologues argue that the values of the past can provide solutions to the present predicaments of the society. The knowledge of the past is more valuable for the present. The past glories and successes are the life and blood of contemporary authoritarian states and governments. The conservative ideals are opposed to change and prefer to maintain status quo. Edmund Burke as a philosopher is the patron saint of conservative philosophy for last three centuries. His philosophy continues to provide political justification to authoritarian and conservative regimes of today. Burke was opposed to the idea of any form of revolutionary change in the society as it destroys the traditional fabrics of good society.  Such an ideological framework is a deliberate strategy to avoid accountability and suppress citizenship rights and liberties. There is relentless attack on democratic and multicultural cultural ethos in politics; often led by governments with conformist outlooks devoid of conscience and compassion.

The contemporary conservative politics is a reaction against the aggrandisement of neoliberal capitalism, which consolidated wealth in the hands of few and marginalised the masses. The capitalist classes have formed an alliance with the conservative forces to further consolidate their power and wealth.  The government formed out of such an alliance does not represent the interests of the marginalised masses. As a result, the world is confronting miseries amidst plenty. The forward march of reactionary and authoritarian governments across the globe is based on the politics of maintaining social, cultural and religious order of the past in the name of national, ethnic and religious glory based on conquest and dominance of minorities and working-class population. Such irrational, illogical and authoritarian outlooks define conservative philosophical praxis.

The conservative governments use the state power to implement their authoritarian agenda of governance devoid of conscience and compassion. These forces are not only hostile to critical public opinion but also suppress any form of dissent within a democratic culture. Democracy dies its natural death without the voices of dissent and debates. The idea of mass obedience to authority is central to authoritarian governance model practiced by conservative governments across the world. The authoritarian regimes and their ideology of mass obedience kills the innate conscience and compassion within human beings. The idea of dominance, hierarchy and subjugation becomes the organising principles of authoritarian states and governments under which majority of people suffer. As a result, the banality of authoritarian evil becomes normal and natural in the society, which produces totalitarian leaders without conscience and compassion. Such leaders use every opportunity to lead and dominate the masses by using state power. The governments become hostage to such leaders and their ideological cult. The compassion and conscience tend to restrict individuals in the misuse of power but the authoritarian cult leaders do not have any such restrictions in use and abuse of power. The authoritarian leaders are revengeful, manipulative, unsympathetic and untrustworthy. These social and psychological characters are products of conservative and capitalist societies. From Americas, Africas to Europe and Asia, the world is witnessing such characteristics in leaders ruling these continents.

The pandemic fueled economic crisis is ravaging the world but the governments are mute spectators in USA, UK, India, Brazil, Iran, Mexico and many other countries. The leaders and the governments in these countries show little compassion and conscience in discharging their democratic responsibilities for their citizens. The global health crisis has revealed that these authoritarian regimes promote the propaganda of ‘nation first’ but in reality, these leaders betray the very people elect them to power. These governments and leadership stand with the capitalist class to further consolidate their wealth even during the global health and economic crises. The political and economic profiles of authoritarian governments show that these right-wing regimes are really without any form of human or animal conscience. The right-wing regimes and their leaders are motivated by fear and use it to rule the massed by spreading prejudice.  The aggressiveness in authoritarian leaders is a product of fear; the source of the desire to dominate with medieval mindset. These leaders use fake news and misleading information to manipulate and control the masses.

Why do people vote leaders and regimes without reason and conscience? Why do people support dictatorships? Why do people support their own subjugation? The Stockholm syndrome, political ignorance, illiteracy, poverty and love for strong leaders etc are some of the silly reasons based on superficial analysis. The alternative to such a right wing, reactionary and authoritarian shift in society, politics and economy needs dispassionate analysis on the causes of such a transformation. It is impossible to fight authoritarian regimes without understanding the foundations of their support and reasons behind the causes of its growth. The capitalist delusions and growth of anti-politics culture of entitlement led to the rise of authoritarian regimes with the help of reactionary religious and market forces.  In spite of flagrant erosion of democratic space and deepening of crises, the popularity of authoritarian regimes and their leaders did not decline. It is a serious cause of concern while reimagining alternatives. Foxy electoral strategies are not enough for radical social and political transformations to defeat authoritarian psychopaths. The survival of democratic, liberal, progressive and multicultural values depends on radical alternatives produced in impending people’s struggles. People’s struggles are incubators of ideas and inventories of alternatives. There is no other sustainable alternative to struggles based on compassion and conscience.

Royal commission into Australia’s bushfires promotes greater use of the military

Margaret Rees

The catastrophic “Black Summer” bushfires that ravaged south-eastern Australia from late July 2019 until February this year are currently the subject of a number of official investigations. These include the federal government’s Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements and several state government inquiries.

Described as an unprecedented “ecological disaster,” the bushfires killed 34 people, including nine firefighters on the fire front, and 445 others who suffered premature death from exposure to smoke.

Almost 6,000 homes and buildings were incinerated and close to 13.7 million hectares of land and 3.5 million hectares of natural forest areas burnt. An estimated one billion animals were killed. Almost 120 animal species and 471 plant species are in now serious danger with urgent action required to ensure they survive.

Remains of a home in Balmoral, New South Wales

Announcing the federal government’s royal commission in February, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated that the “inquiry acknowledges climate change, [and] the broader impact of our summers getting longer, drier and hotter.”

Morrison is a long-time advocate of the coal industry. In mid-January and at the height of the catastrophic fires, he told the media these conditions were the “new normal” and that people should get used to it.

The Commission and Morrison’s ‘acknowledgement’ of climate change will not produce any fundamental change in Australia’s environmental policies and fire and emergency responses. It is an attempt to defuse deep-seated popular concerns over climate change seen in mass protests across Australia, prior to and during the bushfires.

Canberra has called this inquiry not in order to protect the population from the increasingly catastrophic bushfires. Rather it is to remove constitutional constraints on the use of the Australian military on home soil and the suspension of democratic rights in response to anything the government deems to be a national emergency.

The three commissioners chosen to head the six-month inquiry reflect this political agenda. Chairman Mark Binskin was the Australian Defence Force chief from 2014 to 2018; Dr Annabelle Bennett is a former Federal Court of Australia judge; and Professor Andrew Macintosh is a climate change legal expert from the Australian National University.

Nor will the inquiry expose those politically responsible for grossly inadequate response to the bushfires and the decades of government cost-cutting to fire and emergency services.

As Dr Bennett warned participating state government lawyers in an early session, the inquiry “is not a finger pointing Commission.” The inquiry’s “terms of reference” are silent about the gross lack of civilian resources, including the lack of modern fire-fighting equipment, professional firefighters and evacuation infrastructure.

The commission has heard early testimony from several scientific experts, including Dr Karl Braganza of the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO senior climate-change research scientists, Dr Helen Cleugh and Dr Michael Grose who outlined the link between climate change and the bushfires.

Braganza explained the climate-change drivers producing longer and hotter summers and flammable bushland in Australia. These included the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean Dipole and the Southern Annular Mode westerlies that circumnavigate the Antarctic.

Cleugh pointed out that these climate drivers were impacted by the direct effects of global warming. Grose said greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion over the stratosphere around Antarctica were also factors.

The hearing has heard harrowing accounts from some of the survivors who detailed the impossible conditions they endured. Caroline Peterson, a former ranger from Kangaroo Island in South Australia, spoke of “the fire that kept on giving,” which returned three separate times through burnt forest. The fire was so intense that her family home and other asbestos houses exploded in the heat.

Brian Windebank, a retired teacher, was holidaying with his wife at Mallacoota, a small beach resort in South East Victoria with only one access road. The couple and thousands of other holidaymakers and residents were cut off and trapped in the town by the approaching inferno. They were eventually evacuated by sea and air.

The input of survivors, however, has been minimised during hearings which have been dominated by testimony from military chiefs and high-ranking officials from various emergency, police and fire agencies from different states and territories.

At one point during the hearings commission, chair Binskin offered his thanks, “on behalf of the other commissioners,” for Australian Defence Force help during the fires. This assistance, he declared to witnesses Vice Chief of the ADF Admiral David Johnston and Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Greg Bilton, was appreciated by “all of Australia.”

Admiral Johnston and Lieutenant General Bilton used military advertising films to promote the military’s “Operation Bushfire Assist.” The $87.9 million military operation involved 8,000 ADF personnel, including the callout of 2,500 reservists and 500 people from Australia’s defence force partners.

Military personnel were involved in clearing fire breaks and road access, repairing fences and transporting animal fodder, fuel, water and other supplies. Three amphibious ships were provided for disaster relief tasks, including the evacuation of residents and holiday makers from Mallacoota, as well as 26 helicopters and 41 fixed wing aircraft.

However, all this could have been carried out by civilian services if governments had expanded existing and created new vital infrastructure or made the advance preparations called for by emergency services experts in scores of previous government inquiries. Moreover, fire and emergency services that are almost entirely dependent on volunteers, have been progressively run down over decades by Liberal-National Coalition and Labor governments.

Like education and health, government funding of emergency services is tailored to the demands of the profit system, where everything, including human life, is determined by the dollar bottom line.

The Australian Defence Force by contrast is not just exempt from cost cutting but is provided vast amounts of money. Last month the Morrison government, backed by the Labor opposition, announced that $575 billion will be given to the military, including $270 billion for new military hardware, over the next decade.

When the Commission began its hearings the mainstream media gave coverage to the complaints of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA), a group of 33 former leaders of bushfire agencies, who came together in April 2019.

Alarmed at scientific warnings of a catastrophic bushfire season, ECLA members unsuccessfully attempted to rouse the Morrison government to invest in equipment and take action on climate change.

One member, Greg Mullins, a former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner, told ABC TV that ECLA warnings to the government in 2019 of a bushfire catastrophe were ignored and that Canberra “was holding back money for [hiring fire-fighting] aircraft, and then it was too late.”

While this question was not directly addressed when Mullins testified at the commission, he said that Emergency Management Australia (EMA) had been subsumed into a federal government home affairs bureaucracy and that the government responses “during the bushfires was too slow and too late.”

Emergency services, he said, had been diluted “after 9/11 because the focus was on counter-terrorism… We would get about 15 minutes at the end of the meeting to talk about emergency management issues. So it was very much an afterthought in my view.”

Climate change, Mullins explained, was causing the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events. “We need more help… the enemy being climate change [there are] insufficient resources to deal with this threat,” he said.

In mid-January, respected bushfire science expert Kevin Tollhurst wrote an op-ed comment for the Conversation pointing out that there have been 57 formal police inquiries, reviews and royal commissions related to bushfire and fire management since 1939.

“Do we need yet another?” Tollhurst asked, when many of the recommendations made by the 1939 Stretton Royal Commission, and others since, have “still not been fully implemented.”

The current royal commission is no different. It has little to do with combating catastrophic bushfires but is to justify the federal government mobilising the military and give it wide-ranging powers on home soil.

This is already underway since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with soldiers being mobilised to try to plug holes in grossly inadequate health services. They will also be used to suppress growing opposition to the criminal negligence and back-to-work policies of state and federal governments.

The commission will provide an interim report on August 31 before presenting its final findings to the federal government on October 28.

COVID-19 infections rapidly spread across Bangladesh

Rohantha De Silva

COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across Bangladesh with deadly consequences for working people and rural toilers. On Thursday, the total number of official cases rose to 234,889 with nearly 2,700 new infections reported in the previous 24 hours and the number of people killed by the virus that day increasing by 48, to a total 3,083.

These figures, however, substantially underestimate the actual situation in Bangladesh where testing, as in the rest of South Asia, is very low. Up until July 23, just over 1 million tests had been conducted in a country with more than 168 million people—a testing rate of 0.65 percent. One positive case is recorded for every five tests carried out in Bangladesh.

COVID-19 pandemic relief services in Chandpur, Bangladesh [Source: Flickr]

This catastrophic situation is a direct result of the ruling Awami League-led government’s contempt for the lives of the masses and the woefully unprepared Bangladesh public health system, which has been run down by meagre financial allocations by successive governments, Awami League and Bangladesh National Party alike.

Under conditions where the country’s economy is heavily dependent on remittances from tens of thousands overseas Bangladeshi workers, reports emerged last month about medical facilities producing fake coronavirus test reports. These reports are sold to Bangladeshi workers attempting to return to their jobs in Europe or northeast Asia. In response, several countries have started imposing travel restrictions.

Italy recently found 65 positive cases among 1,600 Bangladeshis who reentered the country holding negative COVID-19 reports. On July 8, Italy forced 165 Bangladeshis on two Qatar Airway flights that landed in Rome to return to Bangladesh without testing them. Only 14 Bangladeshis with Italian passports and a pregnant woman were allowed into the country.

Italy, Japan, China, and South Korea, where substantial numbers of migrant Bangladeshi live, have now banned flights from Bangladesh. Currently more than 140,000 Bangladeshis live in Italy, which is one of the largest sources of remittances.

Bangladeshi migrants, who use Italy as a stepping stone into Europe and North America, are no longer allowed to visit the Schengen Area—the 26 European countries that allow people to travel freely across their borders.

In an attempt at damage control, the Awami League government arrested Mohammad Shahed, Dr. Sabrina Chowdhury and her husband for selling the fake test reports at $US60 per document. Shahed has two unlicensed hospitals in Dhaka; Chowdhury and her husband operate a Dhaka laboratory. The government has also made it mandatory for air passengers to have negative virus test reports issued by one of 16 approved laboratories.

While the government will no doubt find other scapegoats, the fake report rackets could not have occurred without political backing from the highest echelons of the administration. According to Transparency International, Bangladesh ranks 146 in 180 countries in the global corruption index.

The increase of COVID-19 infections across Bangladesh is impacting on those seeking to legally migrate to the West on student visas and family reunions. Tasneem Siddiqi, the chair of Dhaka-based Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit, recently told the Nikkei Asian Review that “about 90 percent of student migrants [will] stay back” and would likely to miss the next semester.

Bangladesh has around 12.5 million migrant workers overseas and in the 2019–2020 financial year sent a record $18.3 billion back home. Remittances and apparel exports have underpinned the average annual growth of 7 percent, the pandemic is drastically impacting on the economy. Exports, including garments, have shrunk by more than 25 percent to $34 billion in the 2019–2020 fiscal year.

The ruling Awami League this year has only allocated $3.4 billion or less than 1 percent of the GDP to the health sector. According to the World Bank, an estimated 67 percent of all medical costs are borne by households “through out-of-pocket payments” making it difficult for the poor to access proper healthcare.

Like their counterparts around the world, the Bangladeshi ruling elite are safeguarding their profit interests at the expense of the working class and rural toilers. The lives of the ordinary people are just disposable material to be used for the enrichment of big business.

In April, the World Bank warned that the virus will force some 50 million into poverty in Bangladesh. While the pandemic is heavily impacting on migrant workers and apparel sector employees, the informal sector is the hardest hit. Missing one day’s work can lead to skipping meals, cutting down on medicine or being forced to sell personal assets.

Mustafizur Rahman, a spokesman for the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a Bangladeshi think tank, told the media that COVID-19 meant “the number of jobless people has increased drastically and income has fallen significantly.” A CPD report in early June warned that the overall poverty has risen by 10 percent and could return to 40 percent.

According to the World Food Program, 25 percent of Bangladeshis are already facing food insecurity and 11 million suffer from chronic hunger. On top of COVID-19, Bangladeshis have been hit with devastating floods that have affected five million people, displacing hundreds of thousands of families and killing 119 people.

The disastrous impact of the pandemic in Bangladesh typifies the situation facing millions of workers, rural toilers and the poor across South Asia.

India is currently the worse affected with over 35,000 deaths and 1,580,000 cases, followed by Pakistan 5,924 deaths and 27,700 confirmed cases.

These figures, however, underestimate the real situation, according to University of York public health expert Professor Kamran Siddiqi. He told the BBC this week: “Many deaths are not reported within the vital registration system and the causes of deaths are incorrectly classified.”

All this is a graphic exposure of the political bankruptcy of the ruling classes in Bangladesh and across South Asia.

The coronavirus pandemic and the growing mental health crisis

Ben Oliver

The coronavirus pandemic and the ruling class’ negligent response to it is a traumatic event for world humanity. Studies show the pernicious impact the crisis is having on the mental health of billions. Drawing on research of past disasters and disease, psychologists predict that a mental health “shadow” pandemic will last for years after the disease has subsided.

This mental health pandemic has various causes and manifestations. As World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said, “Social isolation, fear of contagion, and loss of family members is compounded by the distress caused by loss of income and often employment.”

World COVID-19 cases will soon eclipse 20 million and there have been more than 675,000 deaths to date. After lockdowns wreaked economic havoc for the ruling class, and forced workers and their families into poverty and hunger, corporations and governments are now seeking to drive workers back into unsafe workplaces.

Although resilience to disaster is natural, the pandemic isn’t like a wildfire or hurricane. Dealing with the insidious uncertainty of its spread is more like living with a domestic abuser or being deployed to a war zone. Being witness to brutal repression of protests compounds the distress.

In the United States, the spread of the virus has had an immediate effect on mental health. Calls to a Disaster Distress Hotline, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, increased by 338 percent in March. In April, 42 percent of Americans reported feelings of hopelessness and calls to the hotline climbed 900 percent. One in 25 Americans had lost a close family member or friend. By June, a University of Chicago survey reported 40 percent of Americans had depressive symptoms, and in July, 56 percent reported at least one negative effect on their well-being.

Internationally, much research has already been conducted on the psychological impacts of the pandemic. In the United Kingdom, the Mental Health Foundation has been conducting a study since March on the psychological impacts of the pandemic. Half of the UK population has reported anxiety. Half of the Spanish population reported mild-to-severe psychological impacts, and more than half of the Chinese population reported moderate-to-severe psychological impact.

To begin to get a sense of the immensity of mental distress caused by the pandemic, half of the combined populations of China, Spain, the UK and the US is almost a billion people; nearly one-eighth the world’s population.

In the US, the “second surge” started to hit Southern states and California in June. In Louisiana, which has been especially hard-hit, the seven-day new case count is 15,870, 42.9 percent of residents have experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, a 3.9-fold increase since last year. Feeding America predicts food insecurity among 52.5 percent of children in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, the highest level nationally.

Physicians in Louisiana are observing new physical symptoms suggestive of the psychological burden: weight gain, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. “A lot of folks who would come in with one or two problems now have 10,” said Dr. Chad Braden of Baton Rouge, speaking to the New Orleans Advocate.

The pandemic, mass unemployment and financial precarity are caustic to mental health and compound previous inequalities. As the UK study cited above states:

“The distribution of infections and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown and associated measures, and the longer-term socioeconomic impact are likely to reproduce and intensify the financial inequalities that contribute towards the increased prevalence and unequal distribution of mental ill-health.”

In June, 44.7 percent of the unemployed in the UK worried about having enough money for food, and a quarter were suicidal, double the rate in the general population. In the US, 40 percent of households have had difficulty affording basic necessities in the past three months.

Just as the pandemic has led to a redistribution of wealth, the UK study shows a divergence in psychological impacts between those already at risk financially, socially, medically and psychologically and the rest of the population. People with previous psychiatric conditions have suffered the most. One-on-one therapy, peer support, volunteering and supported employment are impossible. The suicidality rate for this population is almost triple the rate in the general public. People with preexisting physical disabilities are also isolated from essential psychosocial support, and many live in high-risk residential facilities, as do the elderly, for whom loneliness and the fear of death have been exacerbated.

Women report greater psychological impacts owing to a disproportionate representation in affected industries, being the primary caregivers at home, and an increase in domestic abuse. In June, 43 percent of Americans with children reported feeling hopeless. Children are at particular risk for mental health impacts. According to the WHO, they have experienced an increase of restlessness and difficulty focusing, which may indicate a psychological impact. Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have more difficulty adjusting to lockdown, and children with autism may suffer from a change in habit and ritual.

The UK study found a spike in the numbers of single parents seeking support. Sixty-three percent are anxious or worried, 43 percent are lonely, and 28 percent are afraid. Many were reliant on insecure, casual employment and suffer from a loss of income and social isolation. The risk of postnatal and perinatal mental health problems has increased, these conditions are less likely to be identified, and care is more difficult to access. Concern is warranted for infants and toddlers of single parents, as these years are critical to social and cognitive development.

Various studies and surveys document a disproportionate mental health impact on youth globally. The population between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely than any other age group to not cope well, with 22 percent reporting suicidality. Education has been cut, job prospects are greatly lessened, youth are isolated from their peers, and their lives are less structured. As one respondent to the UK study said, “It feels like their whole, like, their whole generation is being wasted.”

The pandemic has worsened the mental health of 83 percent of UK teens with a mental health history, and 60 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 22 report symptoms of depression. High risk factors for youth, include losing a parent, having an infected relative or acquaintance, lost family income, more time invested in social media, increased family conflict or violence and the “ubiquitous issues of death.” The distress that is affecting nearly everyone is particularly felt by young people. Three-quarters of mental health problems arise before the mid-20s, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) peaks at ages 16–24. For teens, the disruption in their social environment could slow their cognitive and psychological maturation, posing life-long consequences.

Nowhere is mental anguish more acute than in the health care field. Anywhere the virus breaks containment, workers battle overwhelming influxes of patients for whom there are no proven treatments. They risk their lives with insufficient protective equipment and staffing, knowing first-hand the limitations of the system to care for them if they fall ill. Already experiencing a crisis of burnout, the New England Journal of Medicine describes “a surge of physical and emotional harm that amounts to a parallel pandemic” facing the US clinical workforce.

Three New York City health workers have been driven to take their lives. John Mondello, 23, a rookie emergency medical technician (EMT), died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 24. Lt. Matthew Keene, a veteran EMT, shot himself on June 19. Dr. Lorna Breen killed herself on April 26 while visiting family. The emergency room at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where Breen was a supervisor, became a “brutal battleground” during the surge.

The pandemic comes at a time soon after suicide became the 10th leading cause of death in the US, increasing 35 percent from 1999 to 2018. Drug overdoses in 2020 have increased by 13 percent over the previous year, one-tenth of the general UK population has reported suicidal thoughts. According to the Chicago Tribune, suicides in the US could increase by 20 per day. Models on the 2008 recession crisis predict a 1.6 percent increase in suicide for every 1 percent rise in the unemployment rate. At levels of 20 percent unemployment, 18,000 suicides can be predicted along with 22,000 drug overdoses. Adjusting for misclassified and undercounted workers, the true unemployment rate now is 27.4 percent.

Lessons from studies on the impact of past pandemics may predict the psychological impacts of COVID-19. Thirty percent of children whose families were quarantined during the H1N1 and Sars-CoV-1 pandemics developed PTSD. Anxiety and depressive symptoms among health care workers, and a high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in the general public lasted for months and years after Sars-CoV-1. Income reduction was the highest predictive factor in the development of psychological disorders after the Sars-CoV-1 pandemic. The 1918 influenza increased first-time asylum admissions in Norway by 7.2-fold, and US influenza death rates “significantly and positively related to suicide.”

To address the burgeoning mental health crisis, more studies and intervention are needed. Clinicians are intervening, but armies of mental health workers must be rallied. In the US, experts have called for $38.5 billion in funding. The CARES Act set aside one-half of one one-hundredth that amount.

The May 6 UK study stated: “there will be no vaccine for these population mental health impacts.” One should add: “under capitalism.” To think that the prevailing conditions exacerbated by the negligent policies of the ruling class will improve, or even return to their prior state, would be naïve. The only corrective to the myriad social and economic factors critical to mental well-being is the organization of society to meet the needs of humanity.

The health care system in the US and globally, of which mental health treatment is an integral part, must be wrested from the control of the private health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies and the giant for-profit health care chains and placed under workers control. This requires the socialist reorganization of the entire economy under a workers government.

Grenfell Tower inquiry reveals more criminality by corporations involved in refurbishment

Charles Hixson

The main contractor on the “refurbishment” project that turned Grenfell Tower into a death trap ahead of the June 14, 2017 inferno completed their evidence to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry this week.

On July 20, Rydon contractor manager, Simon Lawrence, admitted the company used cheaper, more flammable Aluminum Composite Material (ACM) cladding rather than zinc-based materials, producing a cost savings of £419,627.

The following day, Lawrence was presented with a witness statement from David Gibson, head of capital investment at Kensington and Chelsea Tenants’ Management Organisation (KCTMO)—which managed the tower on behalf of the local Conservative council. He claimed Lawrence said the plastic-filled panels “would create no problem because the materials used were completely inert and would not burn at all. The meeting accepted his assurances in this regard and nothing came to my notice subsequently prior to the fire to question that these assurances were not accurate.”

Grenfell Tower destroyed following the blaze

Lawrence denied the claim, insisting, “I wouldn’t give technical assurances unless I had that information from the designers or specialists.”

Rydon was committed to cost cutting. Lawrence admitted using “Essex boy patter” in trying to persuade KCTMO to use cheaper face-fixed ACM. This was rejected because the cassette-form Reynosa PE (Polyethylene) had a smoother exterior look, which was more aesthetically acceptable. Ironically, the Reynoband had a worse fire-safety rating than the cheaper fixed version—a fact Lawrence said he was unaware of.

Lawrence’s final day of testimony on July 22 was dominated by evidence of Rydon’s contentious relations with Grenfell residents and subcontractors.

Residents alleged threats and harassment from Rydon employees and the KCTMO, including “builders swearing, use of abusive and sexually explicit conversations.” For his part, Lawrence described residents critical of the work as “persistent and aggressive,” labeling them “rebels.” He told the inquiry there were “several very vocal, dare I say aggressive residents.”

One named was Edward Daffarn, a co-leader of the Grenfell Action Group (GAG). GAG later predicted, eight months before the tragedy, that due to the neglect of their landlord the block could be catastrophically destroyed by fire.

In 2014, Daffarn complained to KCTMO that neighbours had reported “the TMO intend to ‘smash down the door’ of any tenant or leaseholder that fails to cooperate with the installation of new heating systems or windows.”

How Rydon viewed tenants is clear from an email revealed by the inquiry, from Lawrence to a contractor fitting window surrounds with combustible material. The surrounds would play a major role in the Grenfell inferno. Lawrence wrote, “We are under massive pressure from the rebel residents about our quality of work… so far their complaints are unfounded, but I need to ensure our finish is good quality, especially on the show areas.”

Lawrence did criticize what he described as “poor surveying and cheap, incompetent subcontractors.” Nevertheless, he gave the contract providing window surrounds to S D Plastering—a firm run by his own former manager at Rydon, Mark Dixon. Instead of packing the gaps around the windows with non-combustible fiber of Rockwood insulation, Dixon’s firm used combustible foam boards, which the inquiry concluded contributed to the fire. Lawrence admitted he failed to read the bill of works showing S D Plastering planned using Celotex panels. This did not meet the safer specification and breached building regulations.

Rydon project manager, Simon O’Connor, replaced Lawrence on the stand the next day. Despite working for the firm since 2002, Grenfell was O’Connor’s first job as project manager, and the only time he had worked with cladding.

An entire culture within corporations, built up over decades, which viewed “regulations” as impediments to reaping greater profits was evident in his testimony. Of building regulations, O’Connor was “aware that they were there, but not familiar of them in detail.” He was unaware cladding had caused fires, and of the existence of Approved Document B, the main Building Regulations document outlining safety requirements.

His grossly exaggerated CV stated he was “responsible for all operations on site,” including “co-ordinating design and management of subcontractors.” O’Connor told the inquiry, “No, I wouldn’t be qualified to co-ordinate design; I wouldn’t know where to begin.” He explained he hadn’t completed HNC Building Studies, also listed on the CV. Saying this was the first time he had viewed it along with the tender document, O’Connor concluded it “would’ve been [compiled by] someone like the bid writers or marketing team” at Rydon.

Although O’Connor arranged a monitoring programme for each subcontractor to be reviewed on a monthly or weekly basis, he said he “wouldn’t necessarily go to these.” He assumed all materials brought on site were safe, but left that responsibility to subcontractors, and had no system for them to report deliveries to Rydon.

O’Connor, who resigned in 2015 due to the “pressure of the project,” gave his evidence hidden behind a screen in accordance with the vulnerable witness protocol, to protect his mental health and well-being!

On Monday, Rydon site manager David Hughes was questioned about his approval of swapping the installation material used on the Tower. Hughes maintained he gave permission for Harley Facades to substitute Kingspan K15 insulation for the more usual Celotex RS5000 in December 2015 or January 2016. However, purchase orders and photographic evidence show that the Kingspan had already arrived in May and September 2015.

The manufacturer of Kingspan observed their product was used “without our knowledge, as part of a combination for which it was not designed, and which Kingspan would never recommend.”

Hughes claimed, “They are so similar to me, my knowledge and experience, that I didn’t see it as an issue. I’ve never heard insulation described in terms of combustible or non-combustible.”

Fire risk assessor Carl Stokes, who inspected Grenfell in 2016, reported, “Following discussion with representatives at Rydon... my understanding on leaving the tower after my inspection was that the actual cladding was compliant with the building regulations.” However, Hughes did identify possible problems with the smoke control aspect of the extract system during his May 2017 “end of defects” inspection two weeks before the tragedy and reported it to installer J.S. Wright.

Documents in the public domain indicate collusion between the board of the KCTMO and Stokes, who had been KCTMO’s fire risk assessor for seven years, over the suppression of the fact that Grenfell Tower had failed basic fire safety checks. Stokes was employed by the KCTMO on the recommendation of housing official Janice Wray who, according to reports, stated Stokes was “willing to challenge the fire brigade on our behalf if he considered their [safety] requirements to be excessive.”

On Tuesday, Stephen Blake, Rydon’s refurbishment director, answered questions regarding his long relationship with KCTMO, and in particular, his long “professional relationship” with its director of assets and regeneration, Peter Maddison.

The day before Rydon’s interview with KCTMO regarding the company’s Grenfell bid, Blake emailed Rydon’s legal representative: “At the Housing conference we had meetings with senior representatives from K+C... we have been informally advised that we are in pole position [to win the lucrative refurb contract]—ours to lose.”

Rydon won the Grenfell contract in 2014 because its cost-cutting bid was by far the cheapest. Its final bid was £9.2 million—with rival Durkan’s bidding £9.9m and another firm, Mulalley, £10.4 million.

The following day, the inquiry examined the design of window cavity barriers. The 2012 fire in the Taplow tower block on Camden’s Chalcots Estate had the same ACM cladding as Grenfell, and used the same cladding subcontractor, Harley Facades, with Rydon as principal contractor. Harley later produced a report on the fire, concluding that firebreaks in the window prevented flames spreading between flats. Blake himself was on the distribution list of the report, which included a picture of him pointing to the firebreaks. He admitted he never checked with Harley or the architects about barriers on Grenfell.

After many delays, the inquiry was halted on Thursday for a further five weeks to allow for summer holidays.

Despite everything said by Rydon and the other companies involved in the refurbishment—revealing criminality that resulted in Grenfell Tower being unsafe for human habitation—the Inquiry has granted immunity to all who testify so that statements they give to the inquiry cannot be used as evidence against them in a future prosecution.

To achieve justice, the Socialist Equality Party repeats its call for an end to all collaboration with this judicial fraud. Grenfell supporters should call for the inquiry to be terminated immediately. The demand must go out for those responsible for social murder to be arrested, charged and put on trial.

Reopening of schools in Germany puts the lives of children and educators at stake

Andrea Reissner

The education magazine news4teachers calls the reopening of schools in Germany after the summer holidays a “gigantic field trial with an uncertain outcome.” The resumption of classes are being staggered by federal states, beginning on August 3 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and ending on September 14 in Baden-Württemberg. Eleven million children and about 800,000 teachers are affected.

The situation is highly dangerous. Since the easing of the coronavirus restrictions, the number of cases in Europe, and in Germany, is once again on the rise. “We are amid a rapidly developing pandemic,” warned the president of the public health body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, at a press conference on Tuesday. On Thursday, the RKI reported 902 new infections in Germany, the highest number since mid-May.

In its July 29 daily situation report, the RKI described the development as “very worrying” and wrote, “A further worsening of the situation must be avoided at all costs. This can only be achieved if the entire population continues to be committed, for example, to consistently observing rules on [social] distancing and hygiene—also outdoors—by ventilating indoor spaces and, where necessary, by correctly wearing a face mask.”

An overwhelming majority of the population shares this concern and is behaving accordingly. According to a report by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment dated July 24, 2020, 92 percent of the population accept distancing regulation and the obligation to wear masks.

Not so the state governments. When schools are reopened, the RKI’s recommendations will be explicitly disregarded. For classrooms, the distancing rule of 1.5 metres and the obligation to wear masks will be thrown out. If at all, they only apply in corridors and partly also in the playground. The protective regulations that remain in force for businesses and public spaces do not apply in schools!

These provisions were agreed at a joint conference of the state education ministers. They differ from state to state only slightly, no matter which parties comprise the state government. In general, schools are returning to “regular operations.” The regulations for infection protection are very general, often non-binding, and in many places not realizable due to the miserable condition of school buildings and the lack of personnel.

The reaction of teachers and parents is a mixture of scorn and despair to feeble advice on social media, such as: “To further limit the occurrence of infection, hygiene rules such as regular hand washing and regular airing of the rooms must continue to be observed. Direct physical contact is to be avoided as far as possible.” (Berlin) Or, “Sufficient liquid soap dispensers and disposable towels are to be provided and refilled to an extent that enables pupils and staff to carry out regular hand hygiene without unreasonable waiting times.” (Hesse)

In some states, the formation of cohorts spanning different classes or age groups is planned, which should, “as far as possible,” remain amongst themselves. In most cases, these are merely recommendations, with responsibility for compliance left to the schools themselves.

All the models for opening schools state that the incidence of infection will be monitored and, if necessary, stricter measures will be taken. In other words, the state governments are deliberately allowing outbreaks of COVID-19 to occur in schools.

What is striking is that Thuringia, which is governed by the Left Party under state premier Bodo Ramelow in a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, is the most unscrupulous of all the states. It provides for a so-called phased model. In stage 1, which applies initially, it says, “In principle, schooling in 2020/2021 will take place with all participants within the school buildings without restrictions.”

Studies disprove reduced risk

The assertion that the risk of reopening schools is manageable contradicts current scientific studies, which show that schools pose considerable risks in the event of a new wave of infection.

For example, a study in South Korea found that older children and adolescents infected other household members as frequently as adults. Most infections occurred in households where a patient was between 10 and 19 years old. It follows that schools would become hotspots in the event of a wave of infection, as the SPD health expert Lauterbach admits.

In a highly regarded study, Berlin’s Technical University has determined that the aerosol concentration in a classroom, which is critical for transmission, is reached after two minutes when a single infected person in the room coughs. The result of the study is documented in this video.

The allegedly lower infectivity of children, which is often cited to justify opening up schools, is not proven. In its July 24 COVID-19 profile, the RKI warns, “In another study from Wuhan, child-aged index persons infected household members more often than adults. ... Studies on the viral load in children show no significant difference to adults.”

In Israel, the Ministry of Education randomly investigated the sources of 727 infections during the second wave in the country and found that almost 30 percent of these were attributable to educational institutions.

Policy Conclusions

Whether through negligence or malicious intent, the logic behind the reopening of schools is clear: the health and safety of children, parents and teachers is being put at risk in the interest of the economy. Children are being forced into schools under extremely risky conditions so that their parents can be available to work.

After decades of neglect and ruin of the school and education system, the pandemic is bringing to light more glaringly than ever what can no longer be hushed up: All the establishment parties are giving priority to the profit interests of companies over the social needs of the population. It is not a matter of misunderstanding or incompetence, but of tangible class interests. Profits can only be made if parents work. And for this to happen, children must be out of the way, no matter how. Working parents are faced with the choice of risking either their jobs or the health of their children.

There is massive resistance to this blackmail. Parents and educators also have many good suggestions and creative solutions to ensure safe teaching. There is no shortage of dedicated professionals who, with great personal commitment, do what they can to provide the best possible care and education for children in this difficult situation.

What is needed is a political perspective that unites all those involved and makes them effective.

Only a socialist perspective that places the school crisis in its social and international context can do this. The biggest problem is not the virus as such, but that it encounters conditions that block its effective control and favour its spread. These conditions are a result of capitalism, which is the cause of unemployment, misery, environmental destruction and, finally, dictatorship and war throughout the world.

The coronavirus crisis will not disappear on its own. The misery in education will continue, even if a vaccine becomes available at some point. It must be actively tackled by working people in their own interest. This task is urgent and cannot be postponed.

Trade union organisations, which once brought about certain improvements, are now failing across the board. The Education and Science Union (GEW) is an active accomplice to the irresponsible opening up of schools. It is miles away from organising effective resistance and from protecting the interests of teachers.

It is hopeless to rely on appeals to governments or individual politicians. They have created the current situation in the first place.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) advocates setting up action committees in educational institutions and residential areas that are independent of the trade unions and establishment parties. In this way, the resistance against unsafe school openings can be coordinated.

However, the problem cannot be solved within the education system alone. For example, the struggle must be expanded to guarantee continued pay during home childcare.

To put opposition on a broad basis, action committees should make contact with workers in companies whose management is exploiting the coronavirus crisis to push through mass redundancies. There is also much to be done in other areas, especially in the protection of immigrants, left-wingers and all others who are threatened by neo-fascists and far-right terrorists from the police and state apparatus.

The aim must be to get to the root of the problem and build a broad mass movement against capitalism.